Jonathan Fincher
"Searching for Sugar Man" becomes first movie partly shot with an iPhone to win an Oscar
Last night's Academy Awards marked a number of achievements in film history, but there was one noteworthy accomplishment that wasn't mentioned on stage. While many people were focused on the high-profile Best Picture nominees and Hollywood stars, the low-budget film Searching for Sugar Man received the award for Best Documentary. Aside from earning plenty of acclaim for its director, Malik Bendjelloul, the film also became a technological milestone as the first movie partially shot with an iPhone to win an Oscar. Read More
After months of rumors and speculation, Sony has finally revealed the PlayStation 4 at a special event in New York City – well, details of the console, but not the console itself. The company revealed a wide range of impressive features for the new system, including a DualShock 4 controller that syncs with a 3D camera, games streamed from a cloud service, and the ability to play PS4 games on the PlayStation Vita. Here's everything you need to know about Sony's next gaming console. Read More
Refrigerators have gotten some handy upgrades in recent years, with everything from Wi-Fi enabled touchscreens to blast chillers for quickly cooling a beer. Now, Samsung has partnered with SodaStream to introduce the RF31FMESBSR Four-Door Refrigerator, which comes with a built-in sparkling water dispenser for making homemade soda. Read More
This past Friday was not a good day for asteroid-human relations with asteroid 2012 DA14 passing a mere 27,700 km (17,200 miles) from the Earth just a few hours after a meteor exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, damaging hundreds of buildings and injuring thousands. Scientists have been quick to point out that both of these events – a meteor exploding over a populated area and a large asteroid passing through Earth's geosynchronous orbit – are quite rare, but when the worst case scenario is the complete annihilation of all life on Earth, it's probably best to be prepared. That's why researchers in California recently proposed DE-STAR – a system which could potentially harness the sun's energy to dissolve wayward space rocks up to ten times larger than 2012 DA14 with a vaporizing laser. Read More
Video games and beer have been a time-honored combination ever since the first bar installed a Pong machine. We've seen both standard and racing-style arcade machines with kegs built right into them, but never one that actually rewards gaming skill with a tasty beverage. That's where the Beercade comes in. Developed for Big Boss Brewing, the Beercade machine is a fighting game that takes cups instead of quarters and dispenses free beer to the winning player. Read More
The Oculus Rift VR system has been steadily gaining more attention in the past several months, thanks to glowing endorsements from some major figures in the the video game industry and a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that brought in almost US$2.5 million. We've been following the development of the Oculus Rift for some time now, so finding out the company had its virtual reality goggles available to try on at CES was an especially pleasant surprise. Naturally, we simply couldn't resist giving the Rift a test drive to see if it lived up to all the hype. Read More
At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) last year, LG first revealed the Optimus L Series of smartphones, which featured some middle-of-the-road specs in a slim package. This year, LG brought the L Series back to the MWC with a slew of upgraded features, including a higher-resolution display, longer lasting battery, and a dual SIM card option. Read More
Plenty of people enjoy coffee and a good many enjoy LEGO too, so it was only a matter of time before the two were combined. The Build-On Brick Mug is a coffee cup covered in studs and holes that attach to LEGO and other building blocks to customize it however you want. Read More
New technology may be ushering in the age of robotic surgery, but there is still a role for cutting-edge electronics to play in augmenting a surgeon's natural talents. The latest example of this comes from Germany, where researchers have proposed a way for doctors to operate using their own standard instruments by developing a special handle that fits on most surgical tools and lights up to indicate when enough pressure has been used during a procedure. Read More
Wikipad gaming tablet returns with a 7-inch redesign
We first saw the Wikipad tablet, which features a detachable game controller and runs on Android OS, way back at CES 2012. After that though, its release date passed, and we didn't hear anything new about the gaming-centered device. But that doesn't mean the Wikipad disappeared – the developers have been busy over the past year redesigning the tablet with almost completely different features, including a 7-inch screen, extra storage space, and Android 4.1 support. Read More
